Aromatic polymers are excellent in properties such as chemical stability and mechanical strength, and also in electrical, optical and magnetic characteristics. Therefore, they are now materials indispensable in the fields of high technology.
An aromatic polymer having optical activity and a repeating unit represented by Formula (A) as one showing better performance, was found (see Macromolecules, 2002, 35, pp. 2437 to 2439). The polymer is a polymer in which a hydroxyl group is substituted on each aromatic ring. Recently, an optically active polymer comprising a repeating unit having two hydroxyl groups on one aromatic ring, as shown in Formula (B), was also reported (see Macromolecules, 2003, 36, pp. 2604 to 2608). As for an absolute value of molar ellipticity at a wavelength of approximately 230 nm per mole of the repeating unit of the polymer having the acetylated hydroxyl group(s) (degree·cm−2·dmol−1), among the polymer represented by Formula (A), there are some polymers having the absolute value of 102,000. With respect to the polymer represented by Formula (B), the upper limit of the absolute value is 43,000 or less.
